Collections of a Wanderer |

Trying to Pay it Forward and a Week In Review

June 7, 2013 3:17 pm \ Leave a Comment \ amberlb88

TGIF homies! It’s been one hellova week over here. I’ve been slammed at work which has led me to rant late into the evening to my better half (Joe). Luckily, he takes it like a champ and listens intently without interruption. Love that man!

So this morning, I took a trip to Starbucks. I never do this so on the drive over I decided to pay it forward and pay for the person’s drink behind me as a nice gesture. As I drove up to Starbucks, I noticed the line was wrapped around the building. Of course. So, I turned into the parking lot hoping to swing around the building and get in line. Well, this particular Starbucks didn’t have a pass through. You know how when you come around into a drive through there’s usually parking to your right and if someone wants to get out of the line they can do so? Yeah, this wasn’t the case. And you know how when you’ve made a mistake on the road and all you want to do is crawl into a hole? That was me this morning. And I got the most evil glare from a woman in line. I ended up looking like I was cutting in line and had to back track, turn around (in a tight space) and find a way to make two u-turns to get to the back of the line. Whew! What a way to start the morning! I noticed an employee near the automated sign. She was taking orders. She took mine and she asked me if I wanted to pay her instead of at the window. I declined her offer and said I’d pay at the window. Hoping the lady behind me would do the same I turned the corner and got to the window. I asked the guy at the window if he knew if the lady behind me had paid already. Of course she had! I told him all I wanted to do this morning was pay it forward. Unfortunately, today just wasn’t going to be that day. He did however want me to come back later to try again. The worst part? My order was wrong. I took the drink anyway and went on my merry way. I’ll try paying it forward later, but it just amazed me that there was nothing the employee could do to make my request happen. How about the next person in line? Sigh.

How about a little Week in Review to finish off the week?

I’ve compiled a list of my favorite blog posts from the past week and I thought I’d share them with you all.

1. There’s a new-to-me app out that allows you to create your own font on your iPad! Sweet. Thanks to Lauren for the heads up.

2. Aubrey’s Friday Freebie’s never disappoint. Go get ya one!

3. I learned about FitnessGlo on Anne’s blog this week and I entered to win a 90-day membership. Cross your fingers I win!

4. I need to make this cake stat!

5. June 5th was National Running Day. I had to add my favorite gifs to the special holiday.

Have a great Friday and an even better weekend ya’ll!

Posted in: Just me

I Suffer From Migraines

June 6, 2013 2:53 pm \ Leave a Comment \ amberlb88

As far back as I can remember, I’ve suffered from migraines. Unfortunately, migraines are common in my family so it seems fitting that it wouldn’t bypass me in the gene pool. My mother suffers from migraine and my dad has rarely suffered from a typical headache let alone a full-blown migraine. My mothers migraines, unfortunately, have admitted her into the ER on more than one occasion. Mine haven’t reached that kind of severity, but they are without a doubt absolutely debilitating.

In the last week, I’ve been hit with two migraines that have left me curled up in bed in my dark, cool bedroom. Spring is prime migraine season for me. It usually starts as a dull throbbing pain in either the middle of my head or at my temples. Minutes pass and it slowly begins to move behind my eyes. My eyes begin to hurt and any task I’m doing is halted. Nausea sometimes accompanies it. Light and sound become my worst enemies. These were the symptoms I suffered from yesterday afternoon (minus the nausea). By 4 p.m. I made the decision to leave work early. My desk sits right by a window and the light was blindingly uncomfortable. I kept reading and rereading something on my computer screen without much comprehension. I knew I had lost all focus and I had mentally checked out. I came home and did my usual migraine ritual. Had a snack, drank some water, took two Excedrin Migraine pills, got into some pj’s, shut all the lights off, turned on the fan and crawled into bed. That’s where I laid for over an hour waiting for the Excedrin to kick in. Excedrin Migraine is the only thing that works for me. Not long ago, Excedrin had a recall. I spent a long time trying to find an alternative that relieved my migraines. Nothing worked. I was unsuccessful so I was extremely relieved to see Excedrin Migraine back on store shelves a few months ago. Within a few hours, I was nearly back to my normal self. What scares me about this process is that this is probably the most pleasant of migraines. I hate to think how much worse these headaches can really get.

I’ve been thinking lately how much we take our health for granted. I’ve never in my life been severely ill. The closest I’ve come to anything was the time I got mono a couple of years ago. I had one of the worst cases that whipped me out of commission for 5 weeks. I’ve learned a lot of gastrointestinal problems and diseases since meeting Joe. His family has a large range of issues that have made me grateful for my health. I’ve seen how horrible those types of problems can effect not only the sufferer, but the families as well. I only pray that my children don’t inherit such gastrointestinal problems. My dad had prostate cancer and he recently had a spot removed in his kidney because it was malignant. My dear friend was diagnosed with colon cancer exactly a year ago. Luckily, he kicked cancers ass. Our health is such a precious thing and a lot of times I forget how important and fragile it is. It can be gone in an instant. Since my mono encounter a couple of years ago, I’ve gotten the occasional sinus infection. That’s it. I’m so thankful that my health only goes as far as small infections that are easily treatable. Not everyone has that opportunity. I am still pretty young, but this is my reminder that I must cherish my health always. We have this one body and this one life and we should all realize how quickly it can all be taken from us.

Posted in: Just me \ Tagged: cancer, excendrin migraine, health, healthy, illness, migraine sufferer, one life

I’m GIF-ing for National Running Day!

June 5, 2013 4:55 pm \ 1 Comment \ amberlb88

Happy National Running Day! Have you gone out for a run today? I’ll be spending my evening doing intervals on the treadmill because I had zero interest waking up at the butt crack of dawn to go for a run. The heat sucks monkey poo here in Texas and evening runs usually include the blaring sun and humidity of some sort. I’d be sweating buckets if I did that all the time. So morning runs will have to be my new thing until it cools down.

So to stay in the holiday spirit, I thought I’d share my favorite running reactions brought to you by the wonderful and always amusing reaction gifs. Hey, I thought this was better than giving you another post on why I love running. You already know that.

So here we go…

How I feel when I make plans to go for a run.

Carb loading.

How I feel about certain fueling options.

Finding out I set a new PR.

When I don’t PR

Oh you ran a half marathon in an hour?

Waving/Smiling at complete strangers with cool race signs.

Passing people during a race. LIKE A BOSS!

Running terminalogy. Fartlek? Negative splits? Tempo Runs? I just run.

When the race organizers take too long posting results and race photos.

Perfect weather on race day.

After signing up for another race.

Okay, I could probably go on forever so I’ll stop now. Have an awesome Wednesday guys!

Posted in: Just me \ Tagged: gifs, national running day, running

Monday Currently

June 3, 2013 1:30 pm \ amberlb88

So it’s Monday and surprisingly I don’t want to gauge my eyes out. I went for a run this morning so that may have something to do with it. Something about those silly endorphins taking over. Since I’ve been a little MIA lately let’s play a little catch up on all my favorite “currents.” I know there’s a Sunday Currently around these blog parts, so I’m either fashionably late or super early. You be the judge.

Currently obsessed with: this breakfast

Sorry for the crappy, early morning phone pic.

On Sundays, I boil half a dozen eggs and use them in the morning to top my toast. I have a weird obsession with grapefruit right now, too. Weird because I’ve never liked this fruit.

Currently enjoying: baseball

The other week, Joe and I went to a Rangers game with a bunch of his co-workers. We lost, but the tailgating made up for it. Plus, the rain held off long enough to finish the game.

The humidity sucked butt though. Can you tell from my slicked back hair? No way was I going to let down those locks with all that mist in the air. Yuck! On these days, I’m so glad I don’t have curly, frizzy hair.

Currently enjoying part deux: festivals

We headed to Farmers Branch Liberty Fest last weekend. With just our luck, it rained most of the afternoon while we were there. The good news: we got to see Jack Ingram. The bad news: we didn’t come prepared with umbrellas, lawn chairs or ponchos. The even better news: no frizzy hair…again. That’s a win win really.

Currently reading: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

I came across this book on Monica’s blog recently and knew I had to read it. Christopher McDougall, an award-winning journalist, sets out to discover the Tarahumara Indians, who have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without injury or rest. It’s a great book and I’m already about half way through. If this book can’t give me some motivation, I don’t know what will.

Currently relieved about: bridesmaids dresses

Remember those bridesmaids dresses that my ladies had bought back in April? Yeah, I hate them. Last Monday night, I couldn’t sleep. This was in part that I had taken several naps over Memorial Day weekend, but also because I was thinking about how I had slowly fallen out of love with my bridesmaids dresses. The next morning I called David’s Bridal and was able to exchange them. Whew! Crisis averted and new dresses have been ordered. And I luurve them! Turns out they didn’t have this style dress when we originally came to the store. Maybe the mishap was meant to be…

Currently dreaming of: 1200 thread count sheets

Luckily I’m dreaming ON 1200 thread count sheets. I took advantage of a Memorial Day sale and bought some new sheets online. They arrived on Friday and I had a gay ole time rubbing them all over my body. Yes, I may have wrapped myself in them, took a picture and sent it to my poor fiance who was working late on a Friday. Did I make imaginary snow angels out of them? Yes. Did I spend a good 20 minutes wrapped in them on the couch. Double yes. Sorry I’m not sorry. We take our sleep very seriously.

Currently surfing the internet for: races, races, races.

All day. Errr day. I have my eyes set on the 20K Tour des Fleurs in September. I’m hoping they have medals because I’m always motivated by cool medals. What? I wanna fill up one of these. I also asked Joe the other night if he would come with me to Napa Valley so I can run the Napa to Sonoma Wine Country Half next year in June. And holy relay race! This gulf coast race sounds so freaking awesome! It’s 263 miles from New Orleans to Pensacola Beach. That would be one seriously bad ass race.

Posted in: Just me

Taste of Addison

May 21, 2013 4:04 pm \ Leave a Comment \ amberlb88

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was packed with delicious food.

Joe and I headed to Taste of Addison last Saturday. It was a first for both of us and I definitely came away with some realizations I wasn’t expecting. What I was expecting was a festival filled with delicious foods and drinks to sample. Straight from their website Taste of Addison is a “three-day festival [that] features over 60 Addison restaurants serving generous samplings of their menus at reduced prices, national musical entertainment, celebrity chef demonstrations and wine tasting seminars, carnival rides, midway games, award-winning children’s entertainment, and more.”

I expected there would be small samplings from Addison restaurants for FREE. I really should have noticed the “reduced prices” from above. Turns out nothing was free. Festival goers pay $5 (or $15 after 5 p.m.) to get in than spend at least another $5-$10 on a small serving from any restaurant showcased. I expected hundreds of foodies to come out and experience new restaurants they haven’t tried. They had the usual places like Dickey’s barbecue, McFadden’s, Hooters, etc. The prices really weren’t that bad. Water and most beer were only $2 and we decided to sample Texas de Brazil’s combo meal for only $7 a piece. It came with bacon wrapped chicken, a sausage link and a delicious piece of steak. It was definitely worth the $7. The steak was absolutely delicious.

I walked around the festival for a bit. There were a number of shops that piqued my interest, particularly a shop that makes their own wine stoppers. They were so cool and unique that we had to snag a Notre Dame one.

I had checked out the website earlier in the day and I knew I wanted to do the cheese pairing demonstration from Molto Formaggio. It was showcased in the Addison Convention Center. The AC was a much welcome change from the heat outside. Inside, we found a few more vendors. A couple of vendors gave a sampling of olive oil and praline, but that was about it for the free samples.

The cheese demonstration was by far my favorite part.

We had three pairings each – one each using goat, sheep and cow milk.

Goat Cheese:

The mixed greens were topped with Marcona almonds and Bucheron crumbles dressed with house-made vinaigrette using Braswell Rhubarb Ginger confit.

A meat and cheese sandwich made with Clovis cucumber, garlic and dill mustard in between select Creminelli artisanal salami and Cabrin.

The salami was the bomb.com and the perfect pairing for the Cabrin cheese. The crumbles on the salad tasted a lot like feta cheese. It was a little salty and absolutely delicious. I love salty cheese!

Sheep Cheese:

Spanish style tapas composed of Zamorano, Braswell Fig Jam and Olympic Provisions Saucisson Sec on an Olive Oil Italian Crostini.

Fresh green apple topped with Cherbourg and Braswell Red Raspberry Jam.

The cheese and salami topped crostini was really good. Everything meshed really well together. I loved the jam on the apple, but wasn’t too crazy about the Cherbourg cheese. The host told us that in a previous demonstration that day, a man spit out this apple pairing. It wasn’t that bad, but I would definitely consider it an acquired taste. And it’s not even as stinky as some cheeses I’ve tasted!

Cow Cheese:

Jasper Hill piece with Olympic Provisions Chorizo Rioja salami.

Green Hill double cream brie topped with Braswell Basalmic Onion jam on Water Wheel wafer

Crumbles of aged blue cheddar by Roelli

My absolute favorite cheeses were the Jasper Hill and the aged blue cheddar crumbles. The crumbles are the starting point (aging) of bleu cheese and is perfect for those that haven’t quite fallen in love with bleu cheese. I’m tempted to head to the Molto Formaggio store in Dallas to pick up these cheeses. The only thing I didn’t like about the demo was that I couldn’t buy any of the cheeses, salami or jams at the festival. More reason to come to the store!

It was a perfect afternoon to spend trying some delicious foods (even though it wasn’t free). The cheese pairing class is free, but if you go make sure you sit down at one of the three rows of tables at the front. They only had tastings for the 30 people sitting at the tables. Many people who were standing in the back got up and left after they were told they wouldn’t be tasting anything. So glad we sat down!

I love a good festival and finding unique shops and eateries. I wouldn’t mind coming back next year. And now I know that they’re aren’t many free samples.

Did you go to Taste of Addison? What’d ya think? Have you participated in a cheese pairing class?